Catholic Q and A

The term “Catholic”, whether or not the big ‘C’ is used, means, “universal”. The Church founded by Jesus Christ has always been “Catholic” because the mandate he gave to His followers was to, “Go and make disciples of all the nations and baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28,19) and so to, “proclaim the Good News to the whole world” (Mk 16,15).

The second reason why the Church is “Catholic” is because Christ is present in the Church. A well-known phrase of St Ignatius of Antioch (d. c.107AD) is, “Where there is Jesus Christ, there is the Catholic Church”. Jesus assures us that he will be with us, “until the end of time” (Mt 28,20), and so it stands to reason that He is present in the Church He founded. Since Christ founded the Church on St Peter, the “Rock” on which “I will build my Church” (Mt 16,18), the term “Catholic” therefore refers specifically to those Christians who see the Pope as the visible successor of Peter.

The unity among Christians with the Pope (a unity which can indeed be seen as “Catholic”) is realised at the local level – in the “particular churches” (cfr Catechism of the Catholic Church, 834) which express their loyalty to and love for the Church at Rome, which has always “presided in charity” (cfr CCC 834). So although the universality of the Catholic Church stretches throughout the world, that same catholicity is expressed in different ways when she “puts down her roots” in different areas and cultures.

St Peter’s task – along with that of the other apostles, of St Paul and of the other members of the early Church – was to bring the message of salvation to the ends of the earth (St Paul, for example, went on three extensive missionary journeys). So we can say that the mission of the Catholic Church is to be “catholic” as well as “Catholic”.

The biggest challenge facing the Catholic Church, at least in the UK, is catechesis, without question. “Catechesis” means “echoing the teaching”. This implies that when someone gets to know about the faith, there should be a deep resonance at every level of his or her being – mind, heart, body – with the teachings of the Church. Fundamentally, we are talking about an echo of the most basic teaching of all: that Jesus Christ died and rose again, reconciling us with the Father and with one another in the power of the Holy Spirit, offering us the possibility of inheriting eternal life.

It is important to stress this “echo” for two reasons. First, because the echo, by its nature, echoes something the message of the Gospel. In fact we do more than announce a message. There is a person, Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14,6) that we are called to proclaim to others. In practice, this means that catechesis needs to be rooted firmly in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and follow a method that encourages people to find the truth in Christ and His Church. It is important for people to re-learn the importance of the basic truths of the faith. Too much emphasis has been put, in recent years, on how we “feel” God is working. This leads to a very subjective and overly-personalised caricature of the deposit of faith.

Yet merely learning things by rote is not the answer. Secondly then, to be faithful to the tradition, we need a kind of “creative orthodoxy” that allows a sound formation of the mind and heart to take place. We have to try and understand, according to our own capacities, why they Church teaches what she does. We have to personalise the message, or, as Pope Benedict often reminds us, develop a friendship with Christ. This has an effect on our lives that will be deep and lasting if it is taken seriously.

The task of catechesis is most necessary in the family and schools. Children and adults need to get to know and love Christ. Of course it goes without saying that they should learn (by rote!) the Creed, what happens at Mass, key prayers, the ten commandments, what sacraments are, the precepts of the Church, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, how to make a good Confession, and so on. But the teaching of basic elements of the faith needs to be a true catechesis. That is, it needs to affect the whole person, transforming his or her life right to the core. If this task is successful, the passing-on and reception of the faith will be the “joyful” process which Saint Paul, for example, envisaged (cfr Phil. 4, 4-7). Adults and children in general need to be offered ways of re-engaging with the faith too so that this joy is passed on.

In short, the biggest challenge is to help people truly get to know Christ working in his Church.

The doctrine of the Apostolic Succession teaches that the Pope is the successor of St Peter (Pope Benedict is the 265th Pope) and that the bishops in communion with the Pope are successors of the Apostles. Christ reminded His followers of His abiding presence in the Church (cfr Mt 28,20): this presence is evident most visibily in the Pope and bishops of the Church. Through the laying-on of hands, the Holy Spirit is conferred in a particular way on a new bishop. This process takes place at every episcopal ordination; the “apostolic succession” is thus assured and Christians are guaranteed that the presence of Christ is among them. We must indeed remember that, “The bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ” (Lumen Gentium, 20,2).

My role as a priest is to bring Christ to others in the sacraments and to preach the good news of salvation. This includes the daily celebration of Mass and other sacraments (sometimes called “the divine mysteries”), preaching, frequent confession, regular prayer and study. I have a duty to reflect Christ in a way that calls into account the nobility of the office of the priesthood. As St John Marie Vianney, patron saint of priests, said, “Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love.”

Priests are distinct from the rest of the faithful because of their office. St Bernard once said that this distinction is marked in the priest, quid in natura, quis in persona, qualis in moribus (what he is in his nature, who he is in his person and how he is in his conduct). In his nature, a priest is like any other men, since “Every high priest taken from among men is ordained by men for the things that appertain to God” (Heb. 5,1). So a priest is born, lives and dies like any other. Yet in his person, a priest is “the apex of all things” (St Ignatius of Antioch) precisely because he deals directly with the divine mysteries and, more generally, those “things that appertain to God”. In a certain sense the priest becomes “another Christ when he celebrates the sacraments, since these sacraments are the very life of God. It is very important that a priest should recognise this personal dignity. Finally, the conduct of a priest must reflect this dignity in a virtuous life. Origen applies to the priest that test given to the prophet Jeremiah: “I sat not in the assembly of jesters … I sat alone” (Jer.15,17). The priest must in a sense “stand alone”. He does this not because he is better than others, but because his office bears a particular responsibility such that a deep personal fidelity to Christ enables him to minister faithfully to others.

We might reflect again on the words of St John Vianney: “the priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts”.

The Visit to the United Kingdom has been the highlight of the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI: The depth and clarity of the Pope’s vision in his public discourses are the highlight. In the 19,825 official words that Pope Benedict delivered he set out a plan. I detected three main areas:

1) We need “clear voices of faith” among the laity. It is only through individual witness that we can be a force for good. We do not blindly follow the teachings of the Church, but need to be creative, adopting an attitude of leadership, as the saints have done. At Bellahouston Park, the Pope told us that, “the evangelisation of culture is all the more important” today, with the “dictatorship of relativism” that besets modern man. “Clear voices” among the laity are what is needed. This is surely what Newman meant by being “links in a chain”.

2) Secondly, we need to be true teachers to one another, so that the Gospel can continue to be spread in a largely secular society. The Pope was very clear on this, particularly in his address to religious educators.

3) Thirdly, we must recognise that our work is united with Christ’s eternal sacrifice. We are not simply ‘do-gooders’, or followers of a moral code. Rather, all our work, all our prayer, all our sacrifice and suffering, play a part (even if only obliquely and in a mysterious way) in Christ’s work of redemption. The Pope’s words in Westminster Cathedral are extremely important in that regard: “Christ, our eternal high priest, daily unites our own sacrifices, our own sufferings, our own needs, hopes and aspirations, to the infinite merits of His sacrifice. Through him, with him, and in him, we lift up our own bodies as a sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. In this sense we are caught up in His eternal oblation, completing, as Saint Paul says, in our flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, the Church. In the life of the Church, in her trials and tribulations, Christ continues, in the stark phrase of Pascal, to be in agony until the end of the world”.

Overall the Pope brought with him a call for renewal in our lives. The starting-point is our own appreciation of the urgent task of personal holiness. The tremendous enthusiasm of the crowds and the Bishops was encouraging. It just needs to be followed up.

As well as the visit to the United Kingdom, there are other highlights: the Pope’s encyclical on hope, Spe salvi, the inroads he has made in promoting greater reverence in the liturgy, and his Wednesday catecheses on the saints all come to mind.

There are three elements of the council’s teaching that stand out for me:

1) The universal call to holiness: this element of the fruit of the Council is vastly important today. It is now 50 years since the Council, and her sense of the need for a holiness among the laity as well as with those who are consecrated to God in a more specific way has proved prophetic. The decline of morals and collapse of traditional structures such as the family, a guaranteed career, banking systems and school curricula, has left many questioning the very meaning of life. Universities nowadays are being tasked to provide an education that makes the young fit only for the workplace, to stimulate economic growth. This utilitarian approach is ultimately futile, since happiness does not come through money or economic well-being. That is why the universal call to holiness is so important: the Church is calling people to look more than ever at the real meaning of life. Despite our differences, we can all work towards creating a better humanity based not merely on a misplaced work-ethic but on a genuine openness to one another and to the question of God.

2) Liturgical renewal: the Council’s document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium, set in motion a whole sequence of events that are still being played out today in the new translation of the Roman Missal. Coupled with the call to holiness, the appeal for a “noble simplicity” in the Church’s liturgical life has helped people realise that they are able to give what the Council calls a “full and active participation” in the public prayer of the Church. The RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) is an example of such a fruit of the Council. It has sought to show that Christian Initiation, and, by extension, the Christian life itself, flows from and back to the liturgy. The old saying, lex orandi, lex credendi (“what the Church prays the Church believes”) is ever-important. Religious practice must not be confined to a set of arcane rituals. Liturgy must affect the daily life of Catholics. The danger however, is that liturgy can be trivialised, and lose its sacred meaning. Poor translations and unfaithful practice of the rites has left many people somewhat perplexed and betrayed. However, when liturgy is conducted with the “noble simplicity” that the Council envisaged, then it always raises the mind and heart to God.

3) The four main constitutions: the main documents of the Council provide the backdrop for the renewal of life in the Church. Sacrosanctum concilium was important because of its concern for a liturgy that would encourage people to bring their faith beyond the confines of the Church while encouraging a “noble simplicity” in the conduct of liturgy. Gaudium et spes encouraged the Church to “open the doors” and show the world that the message of the Gospel and Christ’s redeeming work are for everyone. Dei verbum, the constitution on the Word of God, is an extremely rich document that encourages people to use the Scriptures that never fail to satisfy when approached with the eye of faith. This document is significant because Catholics are traditionally not known for their knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures. The fact that most parishes have some sort of scripture-prayer group is a direct result of initiatives like Dei verbum. Finally, Lumen gentium, on the identity of the Church, has helped us realise that it is in the Church that our lives take on meaning, since Christ works in and through the Church that he established when conferring the keys to St Peter.

(a) Orthodoxy

The issues that surround the divisions between Catholics and Orthodox are multi-layered and complex. Some churchmen, such as Bishop Gerhard Muller, who works a lot in this field, sees Catholics and Orthodox as having reached 97% ecclesial unity. This is a bold statement, especially given the challenges of getting millions of Orthodox Christians to accept papal primacy and jurisdiction. What is needed is for us to love each other, for there to be a kind of ‘interior unity’, so that the Holy Spirit will work how and when he sees fit.

(b) Protestantism

Again, the issues are complex. We saw a lot of good work in the Papal Visit to the UK, when the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope prayed together and spoke much of the need for ongoing unity. Again, the Holy Spirit needs to work, and, at a local level, meaningful dialogue is best achieved through prayer rather than through meetings that cover up differences and have the potential of leading to a false irenicism.

The biggest obstacle to reunion will be a lack of charity from all parties. As Saint Paul reminds us, “If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love” (Eph. 4, 15-16). Charity, being an infused virtue, is only something that can be given by God. If all parties pray for each other and pray for greater charity, then the truth will eventually come out. It has taken hundreds of years so far, but there is no reason to believe that God will not succeed in bringing about unity for His “little flock” (cfr Lk 12, 32). We must, however, pray for it.

Mariology, or the study of Mary, is important in the life of the Church because it helps us remember how important the Mother of God is in the history of salvation. Mariology talks about the veneration (as opposed to the worship) that we give to Mary.

Many people, often of a generally-Protestant persuasion, do not see the veneration of Mary as important. Indeed some see it as offensive. The main reason for the perceived offence is because Mary is seen to detract from the divinity of her Son. He is the unique Mediator with the Father; He is the Saviour; He is the Redeemer. Why pray to anyone else?

The short answer to this question is that Our Lord asks us to have a relationship with His Mother. From the Cross, He tells St John, “Behold, this is your Mother”, after having told Mary to look after the Beloved disciple: “This is your son” (Jn 19,26-27). The Church has always believed that this is an encouragement for all of us to develop a relationship with Mary, conceived without sin.

From a purely psychological point of view it makes sense to venerate Mary. She is the Mother of God. Do we not trust mothers in general? Do not mothers listen to us, help us, direct us? Veneration of Mary is important because it helps us to remember that we are in a communion of trust and friendship not just with Christ, the unique Saviour of the world. He gives us the saints, of whom Mary is the greatest (being His Mother) to help us on our way. Just as we ask family and friends for help on life’s journey, so we seek the help of Mary and the saints to achieve our goal – the will of God and our own personal salvation.

Theologically it also makes sense to venerate Mary. Christ chose to be born of a woman “when the fullness of time had come” (Gal. 4, 4). If we are to be like Christ, then we too need to develop a relationship with him, as “sons in the Son”. His Mother brought Him into the world. In a spiritual sense she brings many more spiritual sons into the world: Christians who want to follow Jesus the Son of Mary.

We must remember that the Church is not a multi-national company with targets to meet and strategies to implement! The shortage of priests is an invitation to prayer for more vocations. The Holy Spirit is looking after the Church, even in the West! As well as prayer, seminaries should be real “seed beds” of formation (the term “seminary” means “seed bed”). A sound formation that involves a solid growth in the life of prayer, some extensive intellectual study in philosophy and theology, the opportunity to have practical experience and varied input to help with the demands of the priestly life, should be incorporated into all seminary programmes. Young people today want challenges. A degree of joyful austerity in the life of priests that they meet provides young men with good role models and perhaps the inspiration to pursue a possible priestly vocation.